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My Reading List

Hey! How are you doing? It's amazing to see you here.

I have been asked a multiple times by people.

"What books do I read?"

"Can you suggest me some best motivational and self-help books to read?" And such similar questions.

Therefore, I thought of creating a separate page of my reading list. A list which includes the book I have read and will be reading in near future. For some of the books, I have also included a review about what I have learnt and implemented in my own life. This is just to help you explore various books which you can read to learn something of value.

Another purpose of this page is to encourage you to read more and more books. It is one of the biggest investments you can ever make for your growth. I have personally gained a lot by reading books and implementing ideas in my life. My wish is that, you too should read as much as you can and add value to your life.

I know, for some people, reading a book, that too cover to cover, is a humongous task either due to lack of time or interest. Let me share a quick tip with you.

My Mantra for reading a book is this – I would read a book until I get at least one wonderful idea which I can use in my life and get benefits out of it. If I get that idea from the first 2 pages, I’ll take it and close the book. Or if I find it at the end of the book, I will go through the entire book.

Isn’t that fair enough? Ultimately, the motive of reading a book is to learn something.

Although, I read most of the books completely, but I never bother myself to complete the book cover to cover. My focus is always on what am I learning from the book which can be used. You too can try this tip.

You can write to me about the books you like and how you have benefited from them. I'll put those books here in order to grow this list for all wonderful readers.

Till then, Happy reading!!

The Power Of Habit: Why we do what we do and how to change

One thing which I learnt from this book was that every habit is a conditioning done over a period of time. It’s a combination of trigger, action/routine and reward/result. Because of a trigger or a cue, you perform certain action and then you get some result. The result either reinforces your actions or stops you from doing it again.

If the result is what you liked, you will be more likely to repeat that routine or action again whenever you get the same trigger. But if you didn’t like the reward, you will restrain yourself from performing
those actions. And that’s how a habit or addiction is developed.

MBA people who have studied Consumer Behavior know it very well. It’s also known as Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Theory.

Using this, one can change old habits and establish new ones very easily. I too have established certain rituals on a daily basis after understanding it. We do certain things, we get pleasure from it and we repeat it again and again. Eventually it gets wired in you. This cycle continues. If you really want to break that cycle, that pattern, change the routine. Replace the previous routine with something harmless in case of addictions. And if you want to establish new habits, give yourself rewards for performing a particular
routine.

The Tao of Coaching

For this one, I also conducted a Book Talk at my workplace.

What I learnt from this book is that Coaching is not just a profession; it’s a skill and attitude. It can be used not just to improve someone else’s performance but also to improve yours. It not only helps in building great teams but also in building your own leadership capabilities. It helps in improving your relations with the people around you so that you can grow together.

I used techniques from this book and created stronger bonding with my friends and colleagues. In a matter of couple of weeks, I could build good rapport with the people.

I will emphasize that you need to be genuine and authentic while doing that. You must appreciate people and help them out from your heart. And you will build amazing relations with people.

The Happiness Project

One idea which I loved in this book is “Do good, feel good. Feel good, do good”.

You can understand it in this way, your body affects your mind and your mind affects your body. Whenever you feel low, look at your posture, what you are doing physically and observe your breathing. Change it, fill some energy in your physical actions at that time and you will see the change in your mood.

Whenever I don’t feel good or feel low and sad, I use this technique. I spread my arms as wide as possible, raise my head high, close my eyes and breathe deep. I do it for a couple of minutes. It helps me a lot to change the energy inside and around me. It changes my
overall mood and I am able to think clearly again.

Adversity Advantage

It gave me a new perspective to look at the adversities in my life. My limitations became opportunities for me to work on. There is a quote in this book which says,

“Pain that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”

Any kind of adversities you face in your life, whatever they might be, and no matter how much frustrated you felt at that time, you must have realized that when you overcame them, you became a much stronger person.

You must have gone through a number of challenges during different phases of your life. Being a student, working as a professional, handling your own personal life and relationships with family and loved ones.

In every phase and aspect of life, you face one or the other challenge. You might not recognize or remember all of them but you go through them and grow through them without even realizing. You are never the same person you were when you overcome such challenges and adversities. You become a better version of yourself if you try to learn from them.

You Inc. - The Art of Selling Yourself

It says that you should think of yourself as an enterprise. No matter what, you are selling yourself at every moment. In each interaction you are selling your ideas, thoughts, point of view, etc.

Seeing yourself as a Brand gives you an entirely different perspective about you. When you look at yourself as a Brand, you start to think about qualities you already have and even start building new ones. Everything starts to change, the way you present yourself, the way you talk, walk and behave, the way you gather knowledge and the way you share it with others.

When I started doing that, I started to feel condent about myself. I could acknowledge the good qualities in me and felt grateful for them. I was able to recognize the scope of improvement so that I could portray myself as a premium brand in front of others. It helped me to grow further as a person.